Manchester United versus Liverpool by the numbers - Five Aside

Ahead of the Premier League match of the weekend between Liverpool and Manchester United, Paul Carr takes a look at five statistics that could influence the final result at Anfield.

* Ninth-place Liverpool hosts sixth-place Manchester United on Sunday, in the first Premier League meeting between these two clubs with both outside the top five since Sept. 20, 2004.

* Liverpool forward Christian Benteke has scored in three straight Premier League games against Manchester United (two with Aston Villa and one with Liverpool). The only players to score in four consecutive Premier League games versus Man United are Sergio Aguero and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

* Wayne Rooney has 190 Premier League goals, trailing only Alan Shearer's 260 on the all-time list. Rooney has scored 175 of those goals for Manchester United, and he needs one more goal to break a tie with Thierry Henry for the most Premier League goals scored for a single club.

* Liverpool has been one of the worst teams at converting shots into goals this season. The Reds have put 28 percent of their shots on target this season, the second-lowest rate in the league behind Chelsea (27.7 percent). No team has a lower percentage of shots that were scored than Liverpool's 7.2 percent.

* Manchester United leads the Premier League with 59.5 percent possession this season. That's resulted in United conceding 193 shots (9.1 per game), the second-fewest in the league behind Manchester City (8.9 per game).

Paul Carr is a senior editor for ESPN's Sports and Information Group. Follow him on Twitter here: (@PCarrESPN)